One Month Down

Here it is the end of January and it has been yet again another 2 weeks since I last wrote something. Two weeks ago Ross had an interview for a summer internship with the Orange County Public Defenders office and this past week he had an interview with the Orange County DA's office. Not sure when he will hear anything on either of them since they do interviews at like 9 other schools. But we were both excited that he got an interview with both places.

The rain has finally stopped out here and the temps are getting back in the mid to upper 60s. The work on my car is finally done and we felt like a couple of idiots when we found out the noise my car was making was because we put the tires back on the wrong side. Oh well, I now have new breaks and balanced tires. The next step is saving money for brand new tires all together.

Ross has been busy with school since this semester he has to work with a group on a semester-long project. So the school and library have become his second home. Some good news with school is that Ross got his grades back from last semester. Each class is based on a 4.0 scale. In his Torts (or personal injury cases) class he got a 3.8. In his Civil Procedure (or rules of the court) class he got a 3.1. In his Property class he got a 3.7. And in his Legal Writing class he got a 3.2. He is still waiting on his grade from his Contracts class because the professor is actually blind and is having the final exams read to him so he can grade them and the process is taking longer than expected. So overall as of right now, Ross' total grade for last semester is a 3.6 which is an A!!! And he is one of few people that he knows that got an email from the Dean of Student Affairs congratulating him on a great first semester. And he was recently told by his Torts professor that his final exam was a pleasure to read, it flowed very well, and he received the second highest grade in that class!!

It's been a busy last two weeks. Ross started school again this past week for the Spring semester. And in case you were wondering where that post is at that Ross was supposed to add, don't worry, you didn't miss it. Ross, a man of many great words, claims he doesn't know what to say. I keep telling him all you have to do is write about whatever is on your mind, but he keeps saying that he never does anything to write about. So I think this site should really be called What's up with Rachel. And of course as I am writing this, Ross is reading it over my shoulder and laughing. Leave it to a woman to keep things going. Oh well.

So....Ross started back to school again this past Mon. Which is a good thing because he was starting to not only get bored, but he was starting to injure himself. One day he cut his finger with a knife while washing it and another day he burned his thumb while making dinner. And living in an apartment really cuts down on the number of house projects you have to work on and complete. After he cut his finger (the right index one), the video game playing had to be put on hold since his "trigger finger" was not usable. So, he watched all the Harry Potters (3 in one day) as well as a variety of other movies and after the finger healed, he played and beat both of his new video games. So starting back to school really wasn't a bad thing for Ross since there really wasn't a whole lot left for him to keep himself entertained.

Even though it has only been one week back in school, he has already found a class he really enjoys. This semester he is taking a criminal law class where they read a variety of criminal cases and talk about the elements in the case and how the cases relate to the elements they just learned about. So I think this semester is going to be an enjoyable one for him.

In addition to school starting, these last two weekends were filled with car maintenance. Last weekend we changed the oil and rotated the tires on my car. This weekend we changed the breaks and had the rotors turned. The next thing coming up is new tires but that hopefully won't be for a few months. Not much else new is going on with us unless you count the cat peeing everywhere except for in the litter box and Ross finding a mouse in our grill right before he lit it up to start cooking dinner, things are going good.

Holiday Pictures

for some reason Sierra ALWAYS has to sit on Ross' lap

New Year's Eve on the beach

Happy New Year!

the blown out tire

Christmas morning

Go Broncos

It's SUPERMAN!!!!!

A New Year

Another Christmas season has come and gone and we are finding ourselves at the start of not only a new year but a new decade. Christmas this past year just wasn't the same. It was a year of firsts for us. The first year we didn't put up any of our decorations, the first year we made a ginger bread house, the first year we didn't do Christmas shopping, and the first year we celebrated Christmas without the rest of our families. It was definitely weird not going crazy cleaning the house and making sure the turkey was going to be ready in time to eat, that we had enough room for everyone to sit, and enough plates and cups to serve everyone. In a way it was nice to not have to stress over anything this holiday season but at the same time it felt like something was missing.

This year on Christmas morning, instead of opening gifts and getting ready to eat lunch/dinner with family, we decided to face the crowds and go to Disneyland. To our surprise, it wasn't as busy as we thought it was going to be. Don't get me wrong, it was still busy, but not as crazy as one would think. Even with the crowds, we had a really good time. One event that made the day a little more special was when we were picked out the entire crowd in the park to participate with 18 other guests from the park in one of the parades that take place in the park. For those of you that don't know, there is a lake in the middle of the park that has a giant river boat that circles around a small island and there is a parade/show that is done on the river boat and that is the parade/show we got to be apart of. The show is about the new Disney movie The Princess and The Frog and after the show, we got to take pictures with the characters from the movie. Needless to say it was a lot of fun! After our time in the lime light, we walked around the park some more and actually got to see Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony hanging out in Disneyland as well (without their kids)! After our exciting day in the park, we went and watched A Christmas Carol movie starring Jim Carry (very good!).

The Sunday after Christmas we hiked up to the Hollywood sign with some friends. Even though it was a little cloudy that day, you still got a good view of downtown LA, Hollywood, and Santa Monica from the trail. Once we got to the top, we were actually behind the sign, which was a little disappointing since we were hoping for some really cool pictures. But it was still neat and a lot of fun. The 5 mile hike took us about 3 hours total including a 20 min lunch break at the top. On our way back home, we blew out a tire while on Interstate (wasn't on one of our cars). Talk about a little scary. Thankfully the driver did an awesome job at controlling the car and getting us off the freeway safely. After about 20 mins, the spare was on and we were back on the road again.

The Monday after our hike in Hollywood was not a good one for Ross. While he was helping with house work and washing dishes, he cut himself pretty bad with a knife on his right index finger on the first knuckle. He cut it bad enough that it bled for quite some time and he needed to get a finger splint to keep from bending it and splitting it open again. And if you know Ross, going to the doctor was out of the question (even though we have insurance). At least it is starting to heal with a little bruising.

As for New Year's Eve, since most of the people we know out here either have money to go to a fancy hotel or family to go home to or both, we hung out at home just the 2 of us. We played some games, watched a movie, then went to the beach and counted down to midnight watching the waves crash on the sand under the full moon. Even though we didn't stay out there long, we still had a good time.

Ross has one more week left of his break before he goes back to school and I think he is actually starting to get a little bored. Especially since he cut his finger, he wasn't able to play video games for a couple days since we couldn't bend his "trigger" finger. So this week may be his video game catch up week. I go for my second interview for a new job at this other company I originally interviewed with about 3 weeks ago. Keep your fingers crossed that all goes well and they offer me a job! It would be more money, closer to home, and more towards the area of work I am interested in. Other than the above, not much new going on in our lives. We miss everyone back home and wish all of you a wonderful new year. Hopefully we can make it home next Christmas.